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[Source] Mod Megathread

Really? No mention of Underhell?

http://underhell.wecreatestuff.com/

House.2.jpg


Underhell is an Episodic Story Line Single Player Modification for Half Life 2.

It is a community project, gathering content with permissions from different authors.
The mod has been in development since 2005, and has evolved many times before reaching a stable concept.

In Underhell, you incarnate Jake Hawkfield, a Special Weapons and Tactics Operative, who recently got married and moved in with his beloved wife. But soon after those happy events, his beloved wife dies in mysterious circumstances, only leaving clues that lead to believe in a suicide. Jake falls apart, and only his best friend, mentor and boss Frank is here to help him get over his grief.

The mod begins with a wake up call from Frank, ordering Jake to come down to the station.An armed group of elite soldiers have taken contol of a hospital and all it’s personnel.

But Jake will soon realize that it is not a common Hostage Situation…
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Using Smod as a base, Underhell is made up of three completely distinct gameplay styles. The first, which you will be spending the bulk of your time in, is the "tactical shooter" - where Smod shines. Better particle effects, enhanced bullet physics, smarter enemy A.I...

The other part, which you actually start the game from, is "The House" - where the player lives. This plays out more like an adventure game of sorts, where you solve environmental puzzles to progress.

The final piece can best be described as a
"dreamscape" of sorts. When night falls during "The House", the player can go to sleep. While asleep, they are presented with a series of doors, and behind each door lies a new nightmare. Each nightmare is a new puzzle that must be solved, and your reward for solving them is a new plot tidbit.

The game jumps between all three of these gameplay styles to weave its mysterious plot. Whereas most mods try to push you through their storyline in 1-2 hours, Underhell feels like a much slower burn. The Prologue sets up many mysteries and provides almost no answers. Which is good, because Underhell is crazy atmospheric - more atmospheric than most Source mods I can recall. The voice acting is a little rough (as one would expect), but the rest of the sound design is absolutely incredible and the game flirts with a level of production usually reserved for retail games.

The only problem is that it took 6 years for the "Prologue" to come out, and it ends on a pretty crazy cliffhanger. Whether this will ever be finished or even make it to "Episode 1" remains to be seen, but what is here is really quite good.
 
I tried out Underhell. I think I played through the whole thing, but I'm not sure if I've actually completed everything in the house. I found all the journal entries, but have some unused items. I know some are supposed to be used for later chapters.

I had fun with the mod. The actual shooter part was really easy, but it was a nice change from the typical HL2 shooting mechanics. The adventure portion in the house was fun too, and to an extent the other part of the game you have spoilered. The non-shooter sections gave me a bit of a Penumbra/Amnesia vibe.

It kind of feels like 2 or 3 mod ideas that were crammed together though. Unfortunately I don't think the entire mod will be finished, so we won't get to see how all 3 parts really fit together. The mod was a bit too ambitious, and I kind of wish each of the 3 parts could have been developed independently as their own mods.
 
When you do everything, the game will tell you.

Find all the keys and all of the journal pages, a the final door in the dreamworld will open. Entering it will just give you a "Thanks for playing! When the next episode comes out, you'll be able to find out what was really in this door!" message.

Presumably the unused items are for the next episode. I get the implication that they're storing data in a unique way and that Episode 1 (or Episode 2, whatever they call it) will pick up directly from your save data in the prologue. So stuff like the shovel will get used, etc.

It kind of freaked me out at first about the house. The first time through I kind of made a mess of everything and when it kicks you back to the house the second time I was sort of amazed that everything was exactly the way I left it, down to the position props were in (I had opened the bedroom closet and set the shoes on the dresser and they were still there, for instance).
 
Soooo I got to play some Blade Symphony and its pretty awesome! So far its very fun and polished. I mean finally a mod that isn't another zombie,sci fi, military, reused hl2 assets fps!
The game is basically a 3rd person soul calibur with a simpler combat system. You have 3 stances that allow you to perform quick slashes to slow but powerful swings. The right mouse button is attack while the left is block. Certain attack directions emit different colors that help you decide which direction you should parry. You can also dodge and dash with the ctrl and space keys.
 
Anyone play Precursor? It released today, it's a SP HL2 mod set a little under a year before the events of Half-Life 2. It's middling in a lot of ways, but has some neat ideas and puzzles.
 
Reading about Underhell instantly reminded me that I've yet to try the Minerva series of HL2 mods made by that bloke who was snapped up by Valve back in 2008 to work on Episode Three.

They must be good!
 
JaseC said:
Reading about Underhell instantly reminded me that I've yet to try the Minerva series of HL2 mods made by that bloke who was snapped up by Valve back in 2008 to work on Episode Three.

They must be good!
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Pretty darn good, yes. Try out some of the other SP mods in the OP while you're at it! :)
 
Nuclear Dawn isn't a mod anymore is it? Someone made a thread for that video recently I think.
 
Didn't see firearms:Source in the op.
It's quite a fun mod, patch 1.0e fucked it up royally, but 1.0f fixed all the problems.
The community abandoned it during 1.0e, there is usually 1-2 servers nearly full, but this game deserves more players.
Too bad that the f patch was way too late late. (after the mini exodus where the game shrank from 10 servers full average to barely 1)
 
That sounds awful. I was sad when HL2CTF died too... Patches took too long for it too...

Shame people didn't go back.

Idk why people don't get very into mods these days, the HL days were really the glory days...

I mean, sure, a few mods like CS dominated, but there were still plenty players for most of the other good stuff too... Now, not so much...

Sega1991 said:
Was it a recent announcement though? I haven't been keeping up.
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I think it's been just about a year.

Curse Episodes recently announced the same. Ep 1 is still up as a mod though. It's good stuff. Reminds me of Exhumed/Powerslave.
 
I can definitely see SP mods picking up again with the release of Portal 2 and Episode Three, hard to predict MP though. It's very difficult to make a good mod to begin with, but you have to capture an audience on top of that to keep it alive.
 
Botolf said:
I can definitely see SP mods picking up again with the release of Portal 2 and Episode Three, hard to predict MP though. It's very difficult to make a good mod to begin with, but you have to capture an audience on top of that to keep it alive.
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The difference is that in the HL1 days 2 or 3 guys could build a cool mod. Model some low poly guns, alter some default models, mess around in Quark/Hammer, do some coding and bang you had a mod. Mods like The Specialists, Action Half Life and more were build this way. They were free and PC gamers loved to experiment with new things when everything was still 'new' and these modders put in features like bullet time and such long before game developers did.

These days you need more people to build a mod because the assets have to be better. It's harder to change the more complex code and you pretty much need a small studio or at least some sort of structure to make it to the finish line. The 'what used to be' modders are now indie devs and there's so many tools available(like Unity) that you need some sort of special reason to start building something for Source, finish it and not charge money for it. And given the working hours that are put in mods these days it's crazy that some of the creators are still giving them away for free.
 
Yeah, that's definitely true. Each new generation has required more and higher quality assets, which would definitely explain the thinning out of mods, and the lengthening of the generation overall.
 
Sega1991 said:
http://www.moddb.com/games/nuclear-dawn/news/nuclear-dawn-teaser-release-announcement

New Nuclear Dawn trailer, plus more info on them going commercial. Looking hot!
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We're not a mod anymore. I was the sound designer for Nuclear Dawn, most of us got plucked up into the industry which is why the mod died. We had no time to put into it anymore, Interwave bought the rights to develop a commercial game from us and have started from scratch. None of the original assets aside from character designs are in it.

:EDIT: Just saw the new trailer, impressive they've got it this far. I always thought it would be doomed. Although the trailer doesn't show any of the RTS elements.

:EDIT 2: I also worked on Off Limits which went into closed beta recently!
http://www.moddb.com/mods/off-limits
some gameplay http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHV767IJx8Q
 
Okay, I did a bit of Google'ing and it seems the crash in Minerva: Metastasis that occurs after you push a button, battle a few combine who breach a locked door and then try to move on is due to a recent Source Engine update.

metastasis_10000.jpg

^ Crash occurs more or less when you reach the point where the crosshair is.

I read that Foster was working on a fix, but does anybody know if that ever eventuated, or know of any method of fixing or bypassing the crash?
 
JaseC said:
I read that Foster was working on a fix, but does anybody know if that ever eventuated, or know of any method of fixing or bypassing the crash?
Click to expand...

Have you tried no clipping around it?
 
Plasma said:
Have you tried no clipping around it?
Click to expand...

Not yet, but I read that the crash is caused by the updated engine's inability to handle a certain amount of enemies or some such, so I'm not sure how much good that will do.

I'll give it a shot in a sec.

Edit: Nope, didn't help. :( Thanks anyway.
 
Wow.. Minerva is pretty tough, HL2 is a cake-walk compared to this.

I'm liking the level design, high polish. The environments feel kind of cropped though, I often find myself shooting from one cover and then backtracking to another when the enemies come toward me, in the original games I almost always felt like I could move around and flank them etc.

Edit: I just played Mission Improbable as well, amazing stuff!
 
Botolf said:
Yeah, Minerva bumps up the soldier health a fair amount, so they generally get more time to manoeuvre and get shots in.
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THANK YOU I thought I was going crazy.

Didn't remember Combine dudes being such bullet sponges. The mod is no joke.

Also, with most shooters (including Half-Life) nowadays taking a bit of time to set up story stuff and do a bit of a tutorial at first, I was surprised that you basically are getting shot from the moment you are given control in Minerva. In a way, it's kind of refreshing.

Also, forgot how much I like the feel of the combat in Half-Life.
 
Mikey Jr. said:
So whats hot right now in source multiplayer mods?

And no zombie shit please. Getting really stale.
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Right now?

Hmm, maybe Orion, Jailbreak Source, Neotokyo? I don't play 'em, but they do pop up in mod news every now and then.

enzo_gt said:
Are there any Source Mods that AREN'T FPSs or shooters?
Click to expand...
What are your opinion of RTSes? Half-Life 2 Wars is pretty fun, though you'll probably burn through all the maps and modes in a single sitting (still in development).
 
Botolf said:
Right now?

Hmm, maybe Orion, Jailbreak Source, Neotokyo? I don't play 'em, but they do pop up in mod news every now and then.

What are your opinion of RTSes? Half-Life 2 Wars is pretty fun, though you'll probably burn through all the maps and modes in a single sitting (still in development).
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I like RTSs a lot but the amount I like them relies heavily on the amount of charm the races have. Perhaps I'll check this out when it's a bit more robust.

I should get to downloading a lot of the stuff in OP, but man so many that are so large in file size too.
 
Looks promising, but I have seen many SP mods get abandoned over the years so I'll keep my hype at a bare minimum until they say they are about to release it. :p

EDIT: On a sidenote, im so glad they are not using any HL2 assets, I can't bare to play another mod where I recognize the same textures and models from HL2. >_<
 
The M.O.B said:
Looks promising, but I have seen many SP mods get abandoned over the years so I'll keep my hype at a bare minimum until they say they are about to release it. :p
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Definitely not starting a parade anytime soon, but it has a few things in its favor:

- The sheer wealth of content on display, and brand new at that.
- A handful of Interlopers seem to be involved, they're definitely the sort of people who know their way around the engine.
 
Dawdled, but I finally sat down and played this. It's awesome. Explanation follows.

- The environments are stunning. The observatory itself is expertly constructed, with seemingly not a single brush looking out of place or awkward. Tempted to make the opening view of the observatory my desktop background, sopurty :3

- The cloning mechanic is really well-implemented. It's quite intuitive, the visual ball lightning effect conveys the player cloning perfectly and also communicates that it does damage and electrifies turf it touches. Later on, this aspect seamlessly combines an element of timing to the puzzles, and in two senses. In the first, you have to time your arrival at the door to when the ball reaches the door circuit, and then the switch circuit. On your way back, you have to time crossing the electrified turf to minimize the damage you take.

- The combat is really well integrated as well. The arrival of the soldiers is foreshadowed by the dropship (loved the touch of it shattering windows as it flew past), and they take you by surprise by attacking from the rooftops. I love maps that drop enemies onto roofs, it's a unique space and introduces an element of verticality where there would be little of it otherwise.

One of the best maps released for Episode Two, no question.

Oh, and he also reveals how he created the mechanic here, quite clever: http://magnarj.net/whoopsbts.html
 
Botolf said:
Dawdled, but I finally sat down and played this. It's awesome. Explanation follows.

One of the best maps released for Episode Two, no question.

Oh, and he also reveals how he created the mechanic here, quite clever: http://magnarj.net/whoopsbts.html
Click to expand...

It was great but so short. Having read his explanation of the scripting, I was expecting that aspect to be developed over a longer period and involve some amount of puzzle solving but it was barely touched.
 
YCm3G.jpg

Dangerous World is out.

http://www.moddb.com/mods/dangerous-world

The old demo from a couple years ago showed a lot of promise. Some of that is retained here, as there are flashes of brilliance. You play a rebel escaping from City 17 before the core melts down. Your story seemingly intersects with a number of the cast during Episode 1, as you'll find moments where you can hear a familiar event in the distance - evoking memories of HL1's Blue Shift and Opposing Force.

The mapping in this generally feels a bit slap-dash. Some of it's great, but the lighting seems to be seriously lacking in spots, there's weird framerate hiccups, and where you're supposed to go next isn't always clear. I encountered a few bugs that required me to load a previous save, too. The story doesn't make much sense, either - a dude on the outskirts of City 17 is apparently living without oppression, with his own Hazard Suit, cache of weapons, etc. when Dr. Kleiner's message comes on TV about the core meltdown. Going by the route the game takes you through, this person decides that the fastest route away from City 17 is by going directly through it, essentially taking "the long way" out. Other events are a bit anachronistic with the story path of Episode 1.

It's also worth mentioning for those of you who don't like horror, the mod unexpectedly turns in to Nightmare House 2 for a bit a little under halfway through.

If you're bored and looking for something that takes place within the Half-Life 2 mythos and don't mind some uneven quality, I guess this is worth a look. I mean, it's not terrible. Takes about 2-3 hours to complete.
 
Spotless Mind said:
Awesome thread Botolf. I've played a few of these based on your previous posts. I still have to check out Dear Esther.

I replayed Portal last week and it had me wondering what were considered some of the best mods that utilised the portal gun. Any recommendations?
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Sorry, can't link atm, on my phone. Have you tried Portal: Prelude? The VA isn't great but the mod itself is great fun.

Also, no Black Mesa Source from what I can see. Looks amazing. It will be an updated and upgraded version of the original Half-Life. The screenshots are... Look at the screenshots.
 
This is not a Source mod, but since we don't have a thread for Half-Life 1 mods, I'll just link it here.

http://www.moddb.com/mods/cry-of-fear/videos/cry-of-fear-7-min-gameplay

Horror mod for HL1 called "Cry of Fear". They're doing all kinds of advanced stuff with the HL1 engine like normal mapping and high-def textures. Looking pretty awesome. (and yes, you'll need HL1 if you want to play it when it's released)

The last horror mod these guys did, Afraid of Monsters, was probably one of the scariest games I'd ever played - ever. This video seems a little more pedestrian than that, but it's probably missing a lot of build up, too. Afraid of Monsters would look pretty silly out of context, too.
 
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